Lucy wants to know something about the agate. She has a very pretty one
set as a breastpin, and her brother prizes agates as among the most
valuable things which he collects and exchanges. They have an
interesting history.
Agates are composed of layers of quartz, generally of different
varieties, intimately joined together, and are found of all colors,
sometimes exceedingly vivid. In modern mineralogy this stone is an
impure variety of chalcedony, which derives its name from Chalcedon,
that once famous city of Bithynia, in Asia Minor. The rocks near this
place, which is not far from the present Scutari, contain this stone in
considerable quantities. Chalcedony consists of silica and alumina, and
comprises besides agate, heliotrope, onyx, plasma, and sard, differently
colored by metallic oxides. It is found in grape-like masses, but more
frequently in rolled pebbles. The finest Oriental chalcedony presents in
its interior a fine mottled appearance.
The first engraved gem that Pliny mentions is an agate that belonged to
Pyrrhus, King of Epirus. This was in the first half of the third century
before Christ. The same monarch is said to have had in his possession an
agate on which were figured the nine Muses, and Apollo holding a lyre;
the work not of an engraver, but of Nature herself! The veins in the
stone were said to be arranged so naturally that each of the Muses had
her particular attribute.
At a late period, and even in the Middle Ages, it was a popular belief
that the engraved gems found in digging the ground of ancient sites were
natural objects, and that the representations on them were a mere
natural indication of the special power or quality each possessed.
Busts and heads in full and bass relief were executed by the Romans on
chalcedony in the grandest style; the finest specimens of these that we
possess are the Marlborough "Medusa," and the bust of "Matidia,"
supported on a peacock, and three inches high. The chalcedony was
supposed to cure lunatics, and make them "amiable and merry."
The agate was an object of the most fanciful delusions to the ancients.
Orpheus says, "If thou wearest a piece of the tree-agate on thy hand,
the immortal gods shall be pleased with thee; if the same be tied to the
horns of thy oxen when ploughing, or round the ploughman's sturdy arm,
wheat-crowned Ceres shall descend from heaven with full lap upon thy
furrows." He adds that every kind is an antidote to the asp's bite, if
taken in wine.
By burning the agate it was believed that storms would be averted, the
proof of their efficacy being that if thrown into a caldron of boiling
water they immediately cooled it; but in order to do good, they must be
strung on the hair of a lion's mane. The stone, colored like a hyena's
skin, was believed to be the cause of domestic strife, and was viewed
with horror.
* * * * *
What do you think of the wardrobe of Queen Elizabeth, girls? It must
have been about the most varied and extensive ever recorded in royal
annals, to judge from a list of her wearing apparel recently gathered
from the State papers. When the Maiden Queen was sixty-eight, and might
therefore have been supposed to have outlived some of her youthful
vanity, she possessed 99 complete official costumes, 102 French gowns,
100 robes with trains and 67 without, 126 antique dresses, 136 bodices,
and 125 tunics, not to mention such trifles as 96 mantles, 85
dressing-gowns, and 27 fans. With all these dresses, however, it is
curious to note that Queen Bess owned only nine pairs of shoes. When she
died, in 1603, three thousand articles of apparel were found in her
wardrobes, duly catalogued.
* * * * *
"A GERMANTOWN GIRL."--Thanks for your cordial indorsement of the article
on cigarette smoking in No. 117. We hope you will ask the boys of your
acquaintance to read it, and we are sure that you and your girl friends
will do much to put an end to the bad habit in your set if your young
gentlemen friends know that you disapprove of it.
* * * * *
Among the thousands of young people who read this paper there must be
some who suffer from timidity or bashfulness. The Postmistress wishes
all such to read the following quotation from an address made to
children at a recent service in Westminster Abbey by Dr. Bradley, the
successor of Dean Stanley, of whom you all have heard:
"Dean Stanley was, as I said, a man whom not only children, but all
persons, rejoiced to meet, because, as an American whose name is
known all over Europe said, at a great meeting held close by the
other day, 'he was so pleasant'; simple words, but very true. Yet,
strange to say, he was in his childhood and boyhood so shy and
timid that his mother and his father--who, besides being a very
good man, could tell stories all day about birds and insects and
country life, and could draw children after him as a magnet draws
the needle--were alarmed about him. They could not teach him to
enjoy games like other children; and though he was not unhappy at
school, they were much distressed because they could not get him to
speak a word or seem happy in company. He seemed not to like--some
of you, perhaps, know the feeling--to notice anything, or to be
noticed when others were by him that he did not know quite well. He
cured himself of this so completely that if it were not for the
many letters describing him as he was then, no one would now
believe this about him. How did he do so? By always trying to
instruct himself about other things, and to interest himself about
other people.
"It was not merely because he was so clever, and wrote such good
poetry, that boys christened the corner where his little study was
'Poet's Corner,' that the Rugby boys were so fond of him, but
because he was so affectionate, pure-minded, warm-hearted, and
kind; and years afterward we young men, as we were at Oxford,
learned to love him as our tutor, not because he was becoming
famous in the land, but because he cared so much about us, and was
always ready with a kind word and act, and we thought him so good.
If any of the children to whom I am speaking suffer very much now,
as boys and girls often do, in a way their elders never know of,
from this same shyness and timidity, let them learn from the story
of Dean Stanley the best way to cure themselves, and be of good
cheer."
* * * * *
The members of the C. Y. P. R. U. will find in this number an
interesting article, by Mrs. John Lillie, entitled "The Gavotte," giving
a description of this picturesque old dance, together with a sketch of
the boy life of the famous musician John Sebastian Bach. Our boy readers
will be interested in the description of "Mr. Barnum's Show in
Winter-Quarters," some of them may be inclined to try the Indian game of
"Tchungkee," and others may like to busy themselves in the construction
of "A Novel Chair-Sleigh." The girls will be interested in the story of
"The Milkmaids of Dort."
* * * * *